during a season
than any other lady in the Shires, is strongly opposed to the use of the
spur. She tells me that "if a horse is so sticky as to require a spur,
he is no hunter for this country; and if he is a determined refuser, no
woman, spur or no spur, can make him gallop to these big fences and
jump. I consider a spur a very cruel thing, and feel certain that many
men would find their horses go better, and jump better, if they left
their spurs at home, and many accidents would be avoided." Lord
Harrington, who is well known as a fine horseman, also dislikes spurs,
and has advocated their abolition in the Yeomanry. In this he should
receive the support of all good riders, as they know that
placid-tempered horses have better paces, higher courage, superior
staying power, and greater cleverness and tact in times of danger than
excitable ones. In polo, where the legs are far more required for
guiding the horse than in hunting, the use of sharp spurs is forbidden,
except by special permission. Whyte-Melville points out that my sex are
unmerciful in the abuse of the spur. He says:--"Perhaps because they
have but one, they use this stimulant liberally and without compunction.
From their seat and shortness of stirrup every kick tells home.
Concealed under a riding habit, these vigorous applications are
unsuspected by lookers on." I have seen more than one poor animal's side
badly torn and bleeding from a lady's spur. A lady who rides a horse in
the ordinary way with this instrument of torture, which she is unable to
use correctly, brands herself in the eyes of her more experienced sister
as an incompetent horsewoman. I have heard hunting men advocate the spur
for ladies; but they would probably change their opinion if they were to
try the effect of riding with one spur, and that on the left foot,
especially in a lady's hunting saddle. Very few men who wear spurs are
able to use them properly; Whyte Melville says not one in ten, and "the
tenth is often most unwilling to administer so severe a punishment." The
late George Fordham wholly repudiated "the tormentors," and said they
made a horse shorten his stride and "shut up," instead of struggling
bravely home. My husband, in _Riding and Hunting_, says it is the
fashion to wear spurs with top-boots, but many good horses go much
better without them. Whyte Melville remarks that "a top-boot has an
unfinished look without its appendage of shining steel; and although
some sportsmen